Coast path walk steps up funding

Lifelong friends David Martin and Chris Timbrell are to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path to raise funds for a children’s cancer charity that helped Mr Martin’s son.

The walk will see Mr Mar-tin, of Yewstock Crescent, Chippenham, and Mr Tim-brell, of Kington Langley, walk the equivalent of almost four times the height of Everest.

The 63-year-olds leave on Sunday from Minehead, Som-erset, on the edge of Exmoor, and hope to reach the end, on the shores of Poole Harbour, Dorset, on June 21.

The pair will raise funds for CLIC Sargent (Cancer and Leukemia in Children), which provided support when Mr Martin’s youngest of three sons, Tom, was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of 13.

The Martins’ were introduced to their CLIC Sargent social worker at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, who helped them to cope with the emotional, practical and financial effects of cancer.

Tom’s mum, Anne Martin, said: “He’s fine now but it’s something David has always wanted to do because we had such fantastic support.”

Mr Martin, a sales director in the computer industry before retiring four years ago, said: “It was the people who made the difference – the care, compassion and understanding of the CLIC Sargent staff.”

Tom received six months’ of treatment and went into remission, receiving the all-clear two years after his diagnosis. Now 30, he works as a filmmaker in Bristol.

Share article

Mr Timbrell said: “I saw how much their support meant to Tom and the whole Martin family.”

Ipsoregulated

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standardards Organisations's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a compaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here